Participants in the ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa partnership forum adopted a joint statement, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the closing ceremony.

“We worked very well, adopted documents: our joint statement, which contains generalized assessments of the situation in the world, the state of affairs <…> in the economic, social, investment, security, the fight against terrorism, other new challenges and, of course, in the cultural, educational and humanitarian spheres,” he said.

“We are ready to come to our African friends anywhere with pleasure,” Lavrov noted, speaking about the location for the event.

The first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum is being held on November 9 and 10 in the Sirius federal territory in Sochi.

In his welcoming address to the forum participants, Vladimir Putin stated that Russia attaches particular importance to strengthening traditionally friendly relations with African countries, with which it is united by the desire for a fair multipolar world order.

Moscow will continue to help these states in various areas – in ensuring sustainable development, combating terrorism and extremism, countering epidemic diseases, solving the food problem and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, the president emphasized.

The holding of the ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, on the sidelines of which dozens of meetings are taking place, has dashed the dirty hopes of Moscow’s isolation, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova told RIA Novosti.

“Without exaggeration, dozens of bilateral meetings with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are taking place, African colleagues are meeting with each other. <…> The economy, business contacts, exchanges along humanitarian lines are being discussed, meaning culture, education, science, promising projects in all sectors,” the diplomat said.

According to her, the event not only demonstrates that very multipolarity, but also has a practical impact; it is filled with specific substantive meaning.

Thus, holding the forum has dashed someone’s dirty hopes for the isolation of our country, added Zakharova

“This event is important not only for us, it is also important for the African continent, which needs to rely on world powers to move forward, to overcome problems <…> not created by them. This includes poverty, the lack of opportunity for a technological breakthrough,” the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained.

The residents of the region are not doomed to eternal raw material servicing of the so-called golden billion, they are truly participants in the completion of the decolonization process, she emphasized

This is precisely why this forum is so important: African countries must know that there is someone to stand up for them, the diplomat summed up.